Pentagon hid weapons test reports for 25 years because of AI

The Pentagon removed 25 years of annual American weapons test reports from public access. The U.S. Department of Defense explained the decision by the risk that adversaries could use artificial intelligence to search for vulnerabilities in military equipment in the documents.

Director of Operational Test and Evaluation Amy Henninger restricted access to unclassified reports on July 30. The documents were moved to a secure network accessible only to authorized personnel with a Common Access Card.

The Pentagon stated that modern automated analysis tools are capable of combining disparate open data and creating detailed vulnerability profiles of U.S. military infrastructure and weaponry.

The annual reports contained information on the effectiveness, reliability, and technical shortcomings of major defense programs. Together with reports from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, they were one of the main open sources of data on the status of costly projects, including the F-35 fighter jet program.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the decision. According to her, concealing information about weapons malfunctions could endanger the lives of service members and lead to the waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.

Warren also recalled that during her confirmation hearing, Henninger promised to keep the public informed as much as possible about weapon safety and effectiveness issues. At the hearings, she stated that the reports would reflect limitations identified during testing.

The decision was made against the backdrop of a downsizing of the test office. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that staffing changes reduced the agency's ability to oversee weapons testing: employees were assigned more programs, including in areas where they lacked the necessary specialization. This increases the risk of supplying the military with systems having undocumented flaws.

Critics of the decision also point to legislation that requires the publication of unclassified annual reports from the office. The Pentagon assured that U.S. defense partners will not lose access to the documents if they have the appropriate clearance.

Based on materials from: Bloomberg, U.S. Government Accountability Office